I asked Bill Wichterman, Special Assistant to the President for Public
Liaison, if there would be a public ceremony when President George W.
Bush signed the Rail Safety Bill, a five-year authorization for Amtrak
and new money authorized for the Washington, D.C. Metro. This major
piece of legislation passed both Houses of Congress by veto-proof
majorities. I was quickly told that while Bush would sign the measure,
he would do so in private without public ceremony. He didn't want to
have another one of his vetoes overridden and didn't much care for the
bill. It reminds me of when President William J. (Bill) Clinton signed
the DOMA legislation (the bill which provided that no State of the Union
would have to accept gay marriage if another State adopted it) on his
way to the Democratic Convention in 1996. He didn't want the fight with
the Congress but he really hated the bill.
It is a pity that Republican Presidents have such a negative view of
rail. Sure, they don't like the subsidy. But why then don't they balk at
authorizing billions for the airlines and billions for highways?
Congress understands that we need a transportation system alternative to
the airlines. When 9/11 occurred it was the trains which began to move
people. It took weeks for some airlines again to serve Washington, D.C.
and New York City. It is strange that while Republican Presidents always
have paid lip service to doing away with Amtrak, it has done better with
the Republicans than with the Democrats. President Jimmy Carter nearly
destroyed the national system, as his people gave the axe to so many
long-distance trains. President Clinton paid Amtrak lip service but gave
it a starvation diet. It was, after all, President Richard M. Nixon who
brought Amtrak into being. The great conservative Ronald Reagan always
said he wanted to end Federal payments to Amtrak but Amtrak fared better
under President Reagan than it did under Carter and perhaps even under
Clinton.
Now comes Bush, who for the eight years of his Presidency appeared to be
anti-Amtrak. His budgets always were designed to kill the national
system but when Congress didn't agree he didn't fight. And now he ends
up signing the first authorization bill which could give Amtrak more
than just enough money merely to survive.